i'm tired...i think i need a nanny.

it is exactly 1:00am monday morning. the time that comes up at the bottom of the blog is wrong for some reason. anyways, i am up because chase is having either asthma or a viral cough. the whole family just got over a bad cold/bacterial throat infection, so it being another virus would surprise me. however, i'm not a doctor and i don't play one on tv either. when his asthma acts up, he coughs like this and he was outside a lot today. they tell me his asthma is very mild and that he should outgrow it, which i really hope is the case. well, i noticed him coughing before bed, so i gave him the recommended 2 puffs of the inhaler. he went to sleep and i started to...only to drift off and wake up to him coughing pretty bad. we still have a monitor for the boys as well as aiden. i came and got him and tried to assess the situation...are his nostrils flaring? are his ribs sinking in with every breath? is that little space between the collar bone sinking in? all signs of respiratory distress and an asthma attack. well, none of those things were happening, just the terrible, asthma sounding cough. so, what to do? think. think. think. i'm doing the squint in the light, trying to wake up myself thing and he is none too thrilled that i am waking him up either. i decide to try and give him regular cough syrup to see if that will help. have you ever had a battle in the kitchen in the middle of the night with a 4 year old over which medicine he will take? i have. about 2 hours ago. technically it was not the middle of the night then, but it is now, so give me a break. he refused to take the red cough medicine that neatly and easily dissolves on his tongue, which was his medicine of choice last week. tonight he wants to use the inhaler again. well, this is where the mommy detective in me comes into play. do i trust him and believe that he is feeling a tight, asthma chest, or make him take the run of the mill stuff that will not work anyway if it is stricktly asthma? i quickly decide to trust him, only it is too soon to give him another treatment. you have to wait 4 hours. so, now what? well, i have a liquid steroid that is to be used if the breathing treatment does not work, so i go for that. luckily, he complied. at this time, if you are wondering why he had a say in the first place about which medicine he took, now is not the time to question me. today i was wondering why i feel so tired all the time. that seems like a very silly inquirey (sp?) now. the steroid worked and he was very opinionated about going back to sleep in his and colton's room. i wanted to put him in bed with us to monitor him. well, back to bed he went and after his lullaby of choice, he was asleep. in about 6.5 seconds...so was i. then, at 12:00am, i woke up to him coughing bad again. i looked at the clock, expecting to see 4:00am at least, but no. too soon to give a breathing treatment...too soon to give more medicine. now is when i call in the big guns. no, not chad...he is sleeping peacefully. i call the walgreens 24 pharmacy to talk with the pharmacist, who you would think i was on a first name basis with. he, so patiently, researches the meds and tells me what i already know...i can't do another treatment for 2 hours. he says to give robitussin dm...a plain cough syrup until i can do the treatment. i don't have robittusin dm. now is the time to wake up chad. he groggily rolls out of bed and puts his cute glasses on and shuffles out the door to the 24 hr kroger. he only asked one time if we really needed this. he gets back in about 15 minutes and i head upstairs to get chase. it is about 12:45 at this point. in the back of my mind i am thinking, chase is not going to take this. i know it tastes terrible. as soon as i get chase out of bed, still half asleep, he says, "mommy...cough medicine." i say, "we're gonna get you some cough medicine right now sweet baby." he takes it without a word, scrunches up his nose and sputters a little, but swallowed it all. "good job, chase. i'm proud of you." this time he wanted daddy...wanted to sleep in "daddy's bed". i wanted to rock him to keep him upright until the medicine took effect, but chase wanted daddy. for a split second my feelings were a little hurt...afterall, i was the one who had put this whole plan in motion. chad did go get the medicine though...i guess it's only fair. now i am just waiting to make sure the medicine works before i drift off asleep again, and there is nothing on tv. i was watching this candy castle compitition on the food network before chad got back with the cough syrup, and i totally forgot about that until now...i'm wondering who won. none the less, at this point it is better to be awake already than to be woken up after 10 minutes of sleep. my brain gets really confused when that happens multiple times a night. it is 1:33 now, and i have not heard any more coughing, so i think i will check on colton and aiden, and then head to bed. funny thing about colton...his shirt had a big hole in it at the chest the other day. i asked why. he said, "it was itching me, so i cut it." i said, "cut it with what?" he said, "scissors." naturally. we talked a while about not cutting our clothes with scissors, etc. etc. etc. then we talked about the appropriate action to take if our skin is itching. about an hour later, i catch him trying to glue his shirt (still on his body) back together with gum. i think i need a nanny.

32...there...i said it.

today is my birthday. i love birthdays. when i was little, i would get soooo excited as the month of october would roll around and each day i would be filled with a little more anticipation. as far as i am concerned...and i have always thought this...october 24th is the best day for a birthday. i would always get to have halloween birthday parties; it is well into fall (my favorite season); the weather is getting cooler (if we are lucky); it is an even number (everyone in my family was born on an even number); and the anticipation of the holidays is upon us...a perfect time to celebrate ME!! last year, u2 was actually in houston for a concert at this time and chad surprised me with great seats for my birthday. that was one of the greatest times ever!! anyhow, i am turning 32 at about 5:30 pm. there, i said it. i say it this way because i am still holding on tight to 31. i had it all planned out. this was going to be the year that i strategically lost a year. i figured that this would be the year that no one would notice. it is not a big milestone, like 30 or 21 and who really remembers what year i was born? (except maybe my mom and dad...and i was prepared to let them in on my plan and felt they would play along.) so, it was all planned out...i am turning 31. and it was working perfectly. chad actually played right into the palm of my hand by asking, "how old are you going to be again?" i replied...very convincingly, i might add..."31". he totally believed me too, until he went and ask his mom how old his sister was (he knows that she is only several months older than me) and she told him 32. oh well. turns out, it would not have worked anyways. my brother, totally unaware of the plan, decided that this would be the year that he would make me a shirt that says "the tres-dos" on the front, and "seventy four" (the year i was born) down the sleeve. now if that didn't blow my cover, what would? how funny AND ironic is that? as if God was saying thru him, "there's no hiding it and no reason to." kevin (my brother who lives in alaska) and i have kind of started this tradition where we make each other t-shirts for our birthdays...because, let's face it...one can not have too many cool t-shirts. last year, i sent him one that said "say uncle" on the front with a number 3 under that... you know...because he has 3 niece and nephews. and then he sent me one that said "say aunt" with a huge 00 under that because he obviously does not have children, (although he forgot that i had 2 nieces that i adore who live in iowa)...but i understood and appreciated the sentiment. and that brings us to today. i was getting chase in his carseat to take him to school and found the tightly taped box in the back seat of the van that was addressed to "SISTER". chad must have got it out of the mailbox and forgotten to give it to me. anyhow, i was so excited to open it. just as excited as i was to open a present when i was little. i was tearing into it in the parking lot at the school, waiting for chase's teacher to come out to get the kids because i am an instant gratification kind of girl with absolutley no patience when it comes to these things...

side note: chad just called me to see if i had checked the blog today and i had not. so i just went and saw the sweet post he made and all the responses. how meaningful and thoughtful. thanks baby!! now you all understand his title! :)

...and it was a starbucks alaska mug (i am collecting the starbucks city/state mugs from the places that are important to me for one reason or another. i have houston, austin, atlanta, and now alaska so far) and that t-shirt. my first birthday present to un-open this year. i love it. i will wear it proud...and i'll wear 32 proud too.

Look who's 32, uh, I mean 31

Kindergarten (circa 1979)

Happy Birthday! We love you very much. Thanks for being a terrific wife and an outstanding mom. We hope this is a very special day for you. Please forgive Aiden for hijacking your blog.

We love you!

Chad, Colton, Chase & Aiden

i'm coming (un)clean

well, i decided this morning that i am what you call a closet un-organized person. on the surface, everything looks neat and tidy, clean and organized. the rooms that anyone ever sees are usually spotless, freshly cleaned and smelling like "moonlit path"...the room deoderizer spray that santa put in my stocking last year or vanilla...the candle that burns when i know someone will be coming over OR when i am just in a particularly "vanilla" mood. however, two days ago, i had this impulsive desire to organize every room in the house. if any of you start to feel this impulse, take it from me...IGNORE IT! this style of organizational living is how i am most comfortable for sure, and after surveying the damage, otherwise known as the closets, i could not believe i had let things get so out of control. the guest-room closet was literally the picture of opening the door and having everything fall down on top of you. it was the go-to closet when we did not know where to put something. i actually found my old highschool and TCU dance team uniforms and pom poms deep in the back of the space. when i walked into that closet, i felt a little like lucy from the chronicles of narnia when she got lost in the wardrobe. anyhow, i digress...i am 2 days into this project and about $60 down from purchasing so many rubbermaid containers, but the guest-room closet looks great. i have completed the coat closet and the master bath as well. and there is absolutely NOTHING under our bed for the first time in our entire marriage. i have started aiden's closet and all her clothes that she has outgrown are going into sage green rubbermaids and i have to go to target to get blue ones for the boys clothes. (the mis-matched, ugly, gray ones that they are currently in just won't do now...their closet has to measure up to the guest-room's). i can use the gray ones in the garage, which is chad's project. he's thrilled. i'm in too deep to turn back now. so, the point is, i'm coming clean. out of the closet. literally. my house may have looked clean...but deep inside the closet, where no one ever sees, was a mess. i feel like my house was starting to mirror my spiritual life. or my spiritual life was starting to mirror my house. i'm not sure which came first. lately, i have felt un-organized personally and spiritually, yet on the surface things looked neat and tidy. how have both my house and my spiritual life gotten this way? well, i think it is a mixture of being either pregnant or nursing for the past 6 1/2 years (give a girl a break) mixed in with some procrastination and laziness. but, i'm fed up with an un-organized life...both physically and mentally. so, in an attempt to achieve real authenticity...i'm coming (un)clean.

where troubles melt like lemon drops...

double click on the triangle at the bottom left-hand corner to see a video of chase's birthday weekend in san antonio.

Edit video online at onetruemedia.com

as important as oprah

i saw this preview for an oprah show and as well as i could tell...she was answering questions that viewers had for her. "what is in your purse?", was one of the questions that the viewers of oprah had. now is it just me, or are there more important questions to be asked? or, is this a very good question, because after all, you can tell a lot about a girl by what is in her purse. i decided that people were interested in this for the same reason shows like laguna beach and newly weds: nick and jessica are or were hit tv shows. we all have a touch of curiosity...most of us do anyway. maybe chad doesn't. he can't believe i am actually excited about the umpteenth season of the bachelor. "but baby...this one's in rome!!" close your eyes tight and you may actually see him rolling his. well anyhow, today i've been wondering if anyone would actually ever ask me what was in my purse. am i as important as oprah or the high schoolers from laguna beach, california? i decided i was. we all are. luckily we have a God that watches our lives as much as we watch others...and not only watches, but is wrapped up in them as much as i am wrapped up in the bachelor. my prayer today is that i would be as much wrapped up in him. so, in celebration of us all being as important as oprah...here is a list of what is in my purse:

rustic brown leather wallet
3 half empty bottles of antibacterial hand gel (can you dig it?)
1 package of monster's inc. snacks
2 hair clippys (1 brown and 1 black)
5 sharpies (one can never have too many sharpy markers)
1 bottle of advil
a glue stick (just in case!!)
travel wipes
a medicine measurer and dispenser
2 double a batteries (????)
appointment reminder for NASA bone and joint (for chase's follow up)
antibiotic ointment
2 car seat clips (in case i have to install aiden and chase's car seat in someone else's car for whatever reason...i have never actually had to do this.)
children's tylenol meltaways
infant tylenol concentrated drops
infant motrin with dispenser (in case the tylenol doesn't work)
lansinoh (i have no idea why that is in there...we are getting into the inside pocket region)
blue pen
black pen
a bunch of gift cards that are half used with like $1.28 left on them
and my favorite tangerine lip gloss

well, there you have it. if i ever get discovered and am a big star, in the eyes of people other than God that is, you can tell everyone you know what is in my purse.

"San Antonio or Bust!"

On the river walk in beautiful San Antonio

chase's birthday weekend in san antonio was a success!! we had so much fun. the quote for the trip was "san antonio or bust!!" of the many highlights of this trip, the two that stand out the most for me were 1.) chase thinking that the indoor pool at the hotel was seaworld (we came upon it and he said, "look mom...seaworld. where are the dolphins?" and 2.) chase and i feeding and petting the dolphins at dolphin cove. seaworld was amazing for everyone. chase made his peace with shamu right away. we all enjoyed the sea lion show, shamu's show, the baluga whales and dolphin show, the best playground we've ever been on, dolphin cove, the water ski show (i've decided that this will be my next career move...seaworld waterskier), and watching aiden dance in the pavillion at the dance party that was starting as the sun went down on chase's fourth birthday at seaworld. on sunday, we went to the riverwalk and ate lunch at the rainforest cafe. then we saw the alamo. i think i have a renewed passion for my texas herritage and chad is feeling a bit more like a true texan as well. REMEMBER THE ALAMO!! the whole weekend was a blast for everyone. my goal is to make a slide show set to music with all the pictures and video clips for chase to have. if i get that accomplished...i will post it so y'all can see it. it will take some serious dedication. chase is worth it.

the next visa commercial:

tickets to seaworld...$140
stay in a shamu approved hotel...$160
kids meals that come in plastic shamu whales...$10...

all three kids mesmorized...PRICELESS.